This application claims priority to Japanese Patent Applications No. JP 2000-304244 and JP 2001-121702, and the disclosure of those applications are incorporated herein by reference to the extent permitted by law.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a tape cassette storing case. More particularly, the present invention relates to such a tape cassette storing case which is capable of preventing a tape wound on reels of the tape cassette from being loosened or deviated and also preventing reels and component parts of the tape cassette from incurring unwanted damage when the tape cassette incurs a shock via falling onto a rigid floor or the ground, for example.
2. Description of the Related Art
In order to keep video tape cassettes used for broadcasting stations and conventional consumers as library sources, generally, many of them are stored in plastic cases prepared for storage. FIG. 29 exemplifies an external perspective view of a tape cassette storing case 100 in the related art, where FIG. 29A shows the case when a lid is closed, whereas FIG. 29B shows the case when the lid is held open.
In an example shown in FIG. 29, the tape cassette storing case 100 comprises the following: a cubic case 101 having four lateral walls 103, a lid member 301 having three lateral walls 303, and a junction member 201 which is connected to a bottom plate 102 of the cubic case 101 and a ceiling plate 302 of the lid member 301 via a pair of hinges 202 and 203 so that the junction member 201 become a lateral wall of the lid member 301 when the lid member 301 is closed An insertion pocket 304 is disposed at the center portion of the surface of the lid member 301, where the insertion pocket 304 is made from a transparent film attached on the lid member 301 by, for example, spot fusion utilizing a high-frequency dielectric heating process for allowing insertion of title cards, for example. Further, a front-side lateral wall 303, being opposite from the junction member 201, is reinforced by a rib 303r, whereas a pair of lateral-wall locking members 306 are disposed on both ends. Further, a card-inserting pocket 307 for allowing the insertion of recording cards is disposed inside of the lid member 301 by way of fusing a transparent film with a right-angled linear portion 307a consisting of a portion abutted with the short-side lateral wall 303 by way of occupying substantially one-half the ceiling plate 302 and a portion abutted with the hinge 203.
The above-referred four lateral walls 103, each having a lowered center portion are continuously formed in the cubic case 101. A pair of stopper holes 106 for engaging the hooks 306f of the above-referred lateral-wall locking members 306 therewith are formed at both end portions of the front-side lateral wall 103. In addition, a pair of cylindrical members 107 for engaging a tape cassette are disposed at the center portions of the bottom plate 102, which are individually and idly inserted into hub-holes of reels from the back surface of the tape cassette being stored FIG. 30 designates a state in which a professional purpose tape cassette C is stored inside of the cubic case 101 of the tape cassette storing case 100 while the lid member 301 remains open. In FIG. 30, only the front surface of the tape cassette C is shown by way of deleting the hub holes on the back surface.
The professional purpose tape cassette C is stored in the storing case 100 and serves as a library source. Nevertheless, a tape cassette C in the related art has a substantial dimension with 254 mm of width, 143 mm of length, and 15 mm of thickness, for example, and yet, it also has a substantial weight. Because of this, it is possible that a broadcasting station staff member may accidentally drop a storing case accommodating tape cassettes C onto a hard concrete floor in a library or a road on the way to preparing indoor or outdoor filming. Inasmuch as the storing case 100 is rarely provided with such a measure to resist shock when the storing case 100 is dropped from a high position, the video tape stored in the tape cassette C is substantially loosened thereby making it quite difficult to properly load the tape cassette C into a video tape recorder or resulting in the destruction of the latchet mechanism for locking the rotation of the reels on which the video tape is wound, thus raising a critical problem. Even when incurred damage is negligible, a problem often arises in which the edges of the tape wound on the reels incur unwanted damage, and this results in the generation of a distorted video picture. In addition, there is a problem in which the lateral-wall locking member 306 may be loosened to cause the lid member 301 to be opened very easily.
To prevent the above problems from occuring, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 08-253285 (1996) disclosed a cassette case provided with elastically deformable shock-absorbing members along the external peripheral portions, for example. Concretely, the above Patent Publication disclosed a storing case that is designed to alleviate shock by means of flanges consisting of upper and lower plates of the cassette case, respectively, being extended in the external direction and ribs that are disposed at least in the neighborhood of corner portions of the flanges by way of projecting themselves in the vertical direction. In addition, the Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 09-40065 (1997) proposed such a carrying case designed to prevent the video tape from being loosened by means of the following. In order to prevent the reels inside of a tape cartridge from idly moving themselves when incurring shock via falling, a first elastic member was provided, which was forcibly brought into contact with a plurality of tape cartridges disposed on the bottom surface of a lid member a sheet-form second elastic member which was forcibly brought into contact with the tape cartridges, where the second elastic member internally contains air fed via a plurality of air holes formed through the bottom surface of the main body, and a third sheet-form elastic member which was forcibly brought into contact with a tape supplying reel and a tape winding reel of each of the tape cartridges, where the third elastic member was disposed at a plurality of air holes formed through the external periphery of a positioning projection of each of the tape cartridges and by way of covering air holes. To form the first elastic member, aside from such a sheet-form elastic member internally filled with air, a coil spring is provided with a holding member at the tip portion and a plate-form sponge member with rectangular shape were respectively exemplified.
Further, the Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 10-258888 (1998) disclosed a tape cassette storing case, which was designed to cause a reel-base formed on a vertically movable shell-holding member for supporting a shell of the tape cassette to be afloat above the shell of the tape cassette after accommodating the tape cassette therein. Concretely, after ending a recording or replaying process, when drawing a tape cassette out from a video tape recorder, floating reels are lowered to core into contact with a shell of a tape cassette. However, there is such a case in which the tape cannot be lowered due to adhesion to the tape guide posts to cause the upper edge of the tape to be pressed against the upper reel whereby generating deformation. The above arrangement was designed to prevent probable deformation of the tape from being generated. To constitute such an elastic member for vertically moving the shell holding member, a center plate spring or an open-sided plate spring secured to the bottom surface of the tape storing portion, a coil spring, or bellow-formed plastic material, was introduced.
The tape cassette storing case disclosed by the above Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 08-253285 (1996) was designed to cause ribs disposed in the neighborhood of flanges to project themselves from the flanges in the upward and downward directions. Since it is difficult to extract them from a mold, when forming up a storing case, it is impossible to mold it via a single shooting process. Because of this, the art proposed by the above Patent Publication introduces such a method which previously prepares such portions corresponding to flanges and ribs for previous insertion into a mold followed by an injection process to form the main body portion before eventually integrating them into a unit. However, this in turn complicates the production process to cause the production cost to rise.
On the other hand, it will be possible to relax the shock by way of utilizing sheet-form elastic members used for the carrying case, as proposed by the Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 09 40065 (1997). However, in this case, it is required to execute such a process to fuse or adhere peripheral portions of the sheet-form elastic members as of the state in which air is internally sealed against the bottom surface of the storing case, for example. This also complicates the production process to cause the production cost to rise.
In regard to the tape cassette storing case proposed by the other Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 10-258888 (1998), any of the plate spring, the coil spring, and the bellow-formed plastic material used for elastically supporting the tape cassette was discretely prepared before being secured to the bottom surface of the tape cassette storing case. This in turn results in an increased number of component parts and requires additional work for installing them.
It is desired to provide a tape cassette storing case which is capable of freeing reels and component parts of tape cassettes from incurring undesired damage when being subjected to shock, for example, due to falling, and yet enables the production process to be executed easily and inexpensively.
A tape cassette storing case according to one embodiment of the present invention is provided with a linkage among a cubic case which is provided with lateral walls, a lid member which is provided with lateral walls and covers the cubic case, and a junction portion for constituting a lateral wall of the lid member via hinges. The tape cassette storing case stores such a tape cassette incorporating a tape-supplying reel and a tape winding reel inside of a shed. The tape cassette storing case incorporates a pair of vertically disposed cylindrical members which are idly inserted into hub holes of the tape-supplying reel and the tape winding reel against the bottom-surface plate of the cubic case. The hub holes consist of a driving-pawl-hole portion having a reel-driving pawl formed on an internal peripheral surface and a reference-hole portion which is formed in concentricity with the driving-pawl-hole portion and provided with a diameter narrower than that of the driving-pawl-hole portion. The above pair of cylindrical members are formed by such a height reaching at the reference-hole portion. When the tape cassette storing case incurs a shock force having a component in the direction parallel to the bottom surface plate and the ceiling plate, relative to the contact between a pair of cylindrical members and the reference hole portions of individual reels, both of the cylindrical members easily elastically deform themselves to buffer incurred shock, thereby preventing the reels and component parts of the tape cassette from being damaged.
In a tape cassette storing case according to another embodiment of the present invention, either a single unit or a plurality of elastically deformable projected surface portions are integrally formed, wherein the elastically deformable projected surface portions individually project themselves inwardly and have space within the projected surface portion at least on either of the bottom surface of the cubic case and the ceiling surface of the lid member, whereby the elastically deformable projected surface portions individually support the tape cassette by way of being abutted with the shell of the tape cassette or at least one of the tape reels. Whenever incurring a shock force having a component along direction perpendicular to the bottom and ceiling plates of the tape cassette storing case, the elastically deformable projected surface portions formed on the bottom and ceiling plates elastically deform themselves in the vertical direction to buffer the shock incurring to the tape cassette. Owing to this arrangement, neither reels nor component parts of the tape cassette will receive unwanted damage.
As mentioned above, at least one of the tape reels is held by the elastically deformable projected surface portions in the present embodiment. This is to deal with either case in which a brand new video tape of a tape cassette stored in the storing case is fully wound on a supplying reel (one of the reels) or a case in which a video tape is fully wound on the supplying reel via rewinding after completing a recording or replaying process. Even when the video tape is wound on a rewinding reel (the other reel of the reels), it is of course desirable that both reels are supported by the elastically deformable projected surface portions.
By way of elastically deforming in the upward and downward directions, a shock force component perpendicular to the bottom and ceiling plates is buffered by the projected surface portions formed on at least one of the bottom plate or the ceiling plate of the cubic case. The projected surface portion may comprise a single projected surface portion formed on the whole surface of the bottom plate or the ceiling plate, for example, or such a single projected surface portion which is formed on the bottom surface of the shell of a tape cassette being stored and concentrically placed at least on one part of a pair of reel base inserting openings for allowing insertion of the reel base ascending from a video tape recorder. In addition to a pair of horizontally lengthy projected surface portions aligned parallel to each other by way of sandwiching the above-referred two of the reel base inserting openings, the projected surface portion may comprise more than three of them. It should be noted that when a single projected surface portion merely occupies a small area, the amount of elastically deformable area decreases, whereby the shock buffering effect also is lessened.
The projected surface portion may also be formed cubically by way of providing an extremely low-height frustum of circular cone devoid of bottom surface, or a frustum of a pyramid or a cylindrical form. A cubic form of the projected surface portion is not particularly limited. However, by way of providing a frustum of circular cone form, its oblique lateral wall promotes elastic deformation in the vertical direction. It is also allowable to form more than two stages of the projected surface portions by upwardly projecting the upper surface of the projected surface portions. In this case, it is conceivable to provide a method which initially inserts the uppermost projected surface into the reel base inserting opening of the shell of the tape cassette and then brings the inserted projected surface portion into contact with the shell to support the tape cassette, and another method which brings the projected surface portion into contact with the shell of the tape cassette to support the tape cassette. Either of these methods generates a shock relaxing effect as well. The former method includes such a form for supporting the tape cassette by way of causing the reels to be afloat above the shell.
When the shock is lessened by the projected surface portion formed on either one of the bottom plate of the cubic case and the ceiling plate of the lid member respectively sandwiching the upper and bottom surfaces of the tape cassette, the other one of the bottom plate and the ceiling plate may have a rigid surface. However, it is preferred to provide a tape cassette storing case having both surfaces sandwiched by the elastically deformable projected surface portions. It is preferred to sandwich both surfaces of the tape cassette with such projected surface portions having heights equivalent to each other. It is also allowable to provide one surface with multiple-stage projected surface portions and the other surface with such a projected surface lower than the height of the multiple-stage projected surface portions. A single unit or a plurality of projection portions may be formed on the upper surface of a projected surface lower than the height of the multiple-stage projected surface portions, whereby the multiple-stage projected surface portions and the other projected surface portion sandwich the tape cassette.
It is also possible to initially provide the upper surface of a single step projected surface portion or the uppermost surface of the multiple stage projected surface portions with a cylindrical member formed with a plurality of slits at least in the height direction to allow the cylindrical member to be loosely inserted into hub holes of the tape cassette. Owing to this arrangement, a shock fore component incurring to the tape cassette in the direction parallel to the bottom plate and the ceiling plate is lessened due to the deformation of the cylindrical member. The number and length of the slits for enabling the deformation have a specific relationship with the thickness of the cylindrical member, and thus, these requirements are properly set in the course of designing the tape cassette to be stored. In order to properly determine the gradient for facilitating an easy extraction of the molded piece out from its mold, it is desired that the slit width be increased on the part of the tip portion of the cylindrical member. This gradient is also properly determined in the course of designing.
In a tape cassette storing case according to still another embodiment of the present invention, at least one of the lateral walls of the cubic case comprises lateral-wall members and a projected wall member upwardly projecting itself from a predetermined position of the upper edge thereof, where at least the upper edge portion of the projected wall member is formed toward an inward direction of the cubic case. When the tape cassette storing case incurs a shock force having components in the direction parallel to the bottom plate and the ceiling plate, the tape cassette shifts itself inside of the storing case to cause the abutted projected wall members to be deformed elastically, thus properly buffering the shock incurring to the tape cassette.
The projected wall members may be formed in a square shape. In place of this, the projected wall members may also be formed into a trapezoidal shape, a triangular shape, a semi-spherical shape, or any other shape. Further, by way of providing the inner surface of the upper end portions of the projected wall members with projected portions, the tape cassette itself is brought into contact with the free upper end portion of the projected wall members via the projected portions. This consequently causes the elastically deformable amount of the projected wall members to be increased, thereby effectively buffering shock incurring to the tape cassette.
In a tape cassette storing case according to still another embodiment of the present invention, a junction portion comprises a substantially outwardly projecting arc-form elastically deformable curved surface, and yet substantially identical arc-form ribs are formed on the inner surface at both longitudinal-directional ends. When the junction portion of the tape cassette storing case incurs shock, both end portions of the junction portion are supported by the ribs, whereas the intermediate curved surface lowers to elastically deform itself, thereby buffering shock incurring to the tape cassette. In place of utilizing the ribs, the thickness at both end portions may be gradually increased toward the both-end directions.
In a tape cassette storing case according to still another embodiment of the present invention, the bottom plate of the cubic body and the ceiling plate of the lid member outwardly project themselves further from lateral walls of the cubic body and lateral walls of the lid member as thinly configured edge components, where tip portions of the bottom plate and the ceiling plate respectively constitute elastically deformable external peripheral members by way of being formed into an inwardly oriented (by substantially one quarter) elliptic-arc-form surface portion or an inwardly oriented (by substantially one quarter) arc-form surface portion. Owing to this arrangement, when the tape cassette is dropped onto the ground or floor in such a way that the lateral wall faces the ground, curved surfaces at the tip end portions of the external peripheral members buffer shock incurring to the tape cassette by way of elastically deforming themselves in correspondence with extensive falling angles. The projecting width of the external peripheral members is not definitely limited, insofar as the projecting width is not detrimental to the practical use of the tape cassette storing case.
In order to jointly lock the cubic case and the lid member, a lateral-wall locking portion may be provided at such a location where the lateral walls of the cubic case and the lid member overlap themselves at the front lateral wall being opposite from the junction portion. When solely providing the lateral-wall locking portion, it is possible to continuously form the above-referred external peripheral edge portion. When providing a side locking portion on the front lateral surface to effect locking by way of overlapping the bottom plate and a flap plate linked therewith via a hinge in conjunction with a lateral wall of the lid member, as a matter of course, the above-referred external peripheral edge portion is deleted at the side-locking portion. In this case, by way of arranging the flap plate, being locked with the lateral surface of the lid member, to be positioned inner from the tip end portion of the external peripheral edge portion, even if the tape cassette storing case is dropped onto the ground, the flap plate is prevented from directly incurring shock, thus making it possible to prevent the lid member from incidentally being opened via unlocking. Further, by way of effecting the locking between the cubic case and the lid member via the double locking effected by the side-locking portion and the lateral-wall locking portion, the shock-resistant property of the locking mechanism may be promoted furthermore.
A tape cassette storing case according to another embodiment of the present invention comprises those resinous components integrally molded into a complete unit including the following:
a single unit or a plurality of elastically deformable projected surface portions which are formed at least on either of a bottom surface plate of a cubic case and a ceiling surface plate of a lid member, and yet, inwardly project themselves by way of containing space inside of each projection, wherein the elastically deformable projected surface portions jointly support a tape cassette by way of coming into contact with a shell of said tape cassette or at least one of a pair of reels;
a pair of cylindrical members which are vertically disposed on the upper surfaces of said projected surface portions and idly inserted into corresponding hub holes of said reels;
a projected wall portion which projects itself at least from a specific position of the upper edge of one of the lateral walls of said cubic case, wherein a projection is formed on the inner surface of the upper edge thereof,
an elastically deformable external peripheral edge portion, wherein a bottom-plate and a ceiling plate individually extend themselves out from lateral walls of said cubic case and lateral walls of said lid member as thinly configured edge components, wherein a tip end portion is formed into an inwardly oriented (by substantially one-quarter) elliptic-arc form surface or an inwardly oriented (by substantially one-quarter) arc form surface; and
a junction portion comprising an outwardly projecting arc-form elastically deformable curved surface between a pair of hinges and a plurality of substantially identical arc-form ribs formed on the inner surfaces of longitudinal-directional both end portions.
Even when incurring shock in all directional angles or falling onto the ground or floor irrespective of falling posture, the tape cassette storing case properly buffers shock incurring to the tape cassette stored therein, thereby preventing the reels and component parts of the tape cassette from being damaged. Further, inasmuch as the tape cassette storing case is integrally molded into a complete unit with resinous material production cost can be saved.
By virtue of the integral molding of the above-referred projected surface portions for buffering shock incurring to the tape cassette by way of elastically deforming themselves, projected wall portions, and external peripheral edge portions in conjunction with the cubic case, the lid member, and the junction portion, it is possible to economically produce inexpensive tape cassette storing cases. It is suggested to utilize such synthetic resinous material containing an elasticity modulus less than that of metal and a substantial deformable amount within the elastic limit. In particular, thermoplastic polypropylene resin compatible with injection molding and transfer molding contains a desirable elasticity modulus and plasticity, and yet, it is commercially available at an inexpensive cost, and thus, ideally suitable for use. Insofar as an equivalent elasticity modulus and plasticity are available, any synthetic resinous material other than polypropylene may also be utilized. For example, polyethylene resin with a high content of high-polymer may also be utilized.
According to the tape cassette storing case according to one embodiment of the present invention, whenever the storing case containing such components parallel to the bottom and ceiling plates incurs shock, a pair of cylindrical members are brought into contact with the reference holes of individual reels, whereby the cylindrical members easily generate elastic deformation to buffer the shock to eventually prevent the reels and components of the tape cassette from being damaged.
According to another embodiment of the invention, elastic deformation of the cylindrical members is facilitated to promote an effect for absorbing impact energy.
According to the tape cassette storing case still another embodiment of the present invention, the tape cassette is sustained by elastically deformable projected surface portions which are formed at least on either of the bottom surface of the cubic body member and the ceiling plate of the lid body member, thereby buffering vertical-directional components of the shock incurring to the tape cassette to consequently prevent the reels and components of the tape cassette from incurring unwanted damage. Whenever the shell of the tape cassette is held by projected surface members, the reels remain in contact with the shell, and thus, when the tape cassette actually incurs shock, component parts of the reels can be prevented from incurring unwanted damage as well.
According to still another embodiment of the present invention, inasmuch as projected members inwardly project themselves from the upper surface of the projected surface or the planar surface by way of coming into contact with the shell of the tape cassette, the projected members cause the projected surface to be deformed elastically, thereby buffering shock incurring to the tape cassette.
According to still another embodiment of the present invention, by virtue of the elastic deformation of the elastic material filled inside of the projected members, it is possible to enhance the actual effect for absorbing shock incurring to the tape cassette.
According to still another embodiment of the present invention, by way of utilizing four projections formed at four corners on the internal surface of the ceiling plate of the lid body member for positioning, it is possible to form a card storing pocket for allowing insertion of recording cards formed with a variety of shapes by way of partially fusing a transparent sheet or film.
According to still another embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to prevent a plurality of superposed storing cases from incurring positional deviation or collapse caused by unwanted vibration.
According to still another embodiment of the present invention, inasmuch as the projected surface comprises more than two of the multiple-stage projected surface portions, it is possible to properly set the cross-sectional form and the planar form of individual stages in correspondence with the shape of the shell of the tape cassette, whereby enhancing the actual effect for absorbing shock.
According to still another embodiment of the present invention, inasmuch as the upper surface of the uppermost stage of the multiple-stage projected surface portions sustains the tape cassette by way of abutting on the bottom surface of the reels, both the reels and the tape cassette can be prevented from incurring damage via external shock.
According to still another embodiment of the present invention, by way of properly restricting the shift of individual reels inside of the tape cassette, it is possible to prevent component parts of the reels from incurring damage via external shock.
According to still another embodiment of the present invention, by virtue of the formation of a plurality of slits, elastic deformation of the cylindrical members can be facilitated, thereby enhancing the actual effect for absorbing shock.
According to still another embodiment of the present invention, after completing a molding process, it is possible to easily extract the molded storing case out from the mold, thereby promoting the productivity of the storing case.
According to still another embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to secure sufficient elastic deformation of the cylindrical members via swollen tip portions, thereby enhancing the actual effect for absorbing shock.
According to still another embodiment of the present invention, when the tape cassette is shifted inside of the storing case, the tape cassette is brought into contact with the projected wall members. This in turn causes the projected wall members to elastically deform themselves to buffer shock components incurring to the tape cassette in parallel with the bottom plate and the ceiling plate of the tape cassette, thereby preventing the reels and component parts of the tape cassette from incurring unwanted damage inside the tape cassette.
According to still another embodiment of the present invention, the tape cassette comes into contact with projected wall members via projections formed on the internal surface on the upper edge side of the projected wall members to cause the projected wall members to elastically deform themselves by a greater amount to consequently enable the shock components incurring to the tape cassette in parallel with the bottom plate and the ceiling plate of the tape cassette to be more effectively buffered.
According to the tape cassette storing case in still another embodiment of the present invention, inasmuch as the junction portion comprises an outwardly projecting substantially circular-arc curve surface, even when the tape cassette falls with the junction portion facing the ground, the circular-arc curve surface elastically deforms to properly buffer shock incurring to the tape cassette.
Further, according to the tape cassette storing case in still another embodiment of the present invention, the ceiling plate of the lid body member and the bottom plate of the cubic body member are thinly extended out from the lateral wall members, where tip portions of these plates are inwardly bent to form external peripheral edge portions. Because of this arrangement, even when the storing case falls with the external peripheral edge portion facing the ground, irrespective of the falling posture of the storing case, the tip-end curve surface elastically deforms, thereby buffering the shock incurring to the tape cassette.
According to still another embodiment of the present invention, an inhibiting wall is disposed on the inner side of the tip-end curve surface of the external peripheral edge of the bottom plate so as to be close to the lateral wall of the lid body when being closed. Owing to this arrangement, dust particles are prevented from infiltrating into the storing case directly via the bottom end of the lateral walls, thus preventing any trouble from occurring due to infiltration of dust particles.
According to still another embodiment of the present invention, the cubic body and the lid body is locked by double by means of the side-locking member and the lateral-wall locking member, and yet, the side-locking member is subject to locking at a position inner from the tip end of the external peripheral edge portion. Owing to this arrangement, even when the fallen storing case incurs shock, the side-locking member is free from directly incurring shock, without the fear of causing the lid body to be opened via unlocking.
According to still another embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to promote handling utility via a single hand operation of an user while preventing the flap plate constituting one of the components of the side locking member from being torn off.
According to still another embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to further promote operating utility related to the opening and closing operation of the side-locking member.
Further, according to the tape cassette storing case in still another embodiment of the present invention, projected surface members are formed at least on a part of the bottom plate of the cubic body or on a part of the ceiling plate of the lid body in order that the projected surface members may be able to buffer vertical-directional components of shock force incurring to the tape cassette by elastically deforming the case in the vertical direction. Further, the projected wall members formed on the lateral walls of the cubic body are elastically deformed by the tape cassette shifting itself inside of the storing case. This in turn causes a shock force component incurring to the tape cassette in parallel with the bottom and ceiling plates of the tape cassette to be buffered. Further, when the storing case incurs shock via the lateral side, external peripheral edges of the bottom plate and the ceiling plate and the substantially circular-arc curve surface of the junction portion jointly generate elastic deformation, thereby properly buffering the shock incurring to the tape cassette. Concretely, even when the tape cassette incurs shock via any direction or even when falling itself irrespective of falling posture, the above-referred external peripheral edges and the circular-arc curve surface elastically deform themselves, thereby properly buffering the shock incurring to the tape cassette. Because of this, the tape wound on the reels is prevented from improperly being wound via deviation, and yet, reels and component parts of the tape cassette are prevented from incurring unwanted damage. In addition, inasmuch as the inventive tape cassette storing case is integrally molded with resinous material, it is possible to provide inexpensive storing cases.